Beginner What was your first 'WOW' picture?

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Just for interest what was the first picture you took that made you say 'Wow'? The one that really got you hooked on photography?
This was mine.
I had been taking photos for a few years, learning from books, the internet, anywhere I could get information. Eventually I went to night classes and this was one of my assignments. I know now that there is lots wrong with this shot, but at the time I remember thinking...'Wow, I did that'. That was my turning point...been hooked ever since. :)

 
It was the first shot I ever took.... well, sort of... it was on the first roll along with 36 others. What made it more special was that I developed the film, and printed the image too. I burned in another sky from another shot. I'd read up on developing and printing for weeks before my Dad bougt me the enlarger. I had no idea whether it would work or not, and when I saw the image appear in the dev under the safelight... that was it. Hooked. I was around 12 or 13 I think.

This digital generation will never feel that... seeing that image appear from a white piece of paper :(

It was taken on a Pentax MV, 50mm SMC Pentax f2 lens. Kodak Tri-x Pan film developed in ID11 and printed on Ilford Gallerie fibre based paper.

I'm amazed I remember that.

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I suppose my first was a shot I took aged 10 with my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic. It's a shot of one of my sisters saying hello to a horse. The sun was behind them and they came out very dark against the background. After a moment of disappointment that 90% of the detail had been lost I realised the artistic potential. So it was a slightly delayed wow :D
 
woof woof said:
I suppose my first was a shot I took aged 10 with my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic. It's a shot of one of my sisters saying hello to a horse. The sun was behind them and they came out very dark against the background. After a moment of disappointment that 90% of the detail had been lost I realised the artistic potential. So it was a slightly delayed wow :D
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I remember around 1973, laying in sand dunes on holiday on the Isle of Man, creeping up to a stationary herring gull with my Kodak Instamatic 25.
 
Sorry digital here. It was simply a picture of my niece. She had come round to play with my boys and I got this amazing photo with the background blurred and their is something to this day that I love about it, yes the background was a bit cluttered and her hair is a bit messy but her eyes..the sharpness the cheeky smile the way she was posed (well naturally posed) it all just worked.

I've taken better photos but that was my first 'wow' moment from something so simple.
 
35 or so years ago, managed to catch a friend paddling through a stopper below a local weir in a kayak. All you can see of him are his hands and the paddles. IIRC (which is doubtful after so many years and abuses of the brane!!!), it was on Tri-X or HP5 pushed to 1600 ASA. Grainy as a pebble beach, especially when cropped to get a 10x8 print from a small bit of the negative - I didn't have anything longer than 135mm and 500 would have been a bit short!
 
I'd been using film SLRs and an early 4Mp digital compact and had just upgraded to a 20D.
Went on a wild and windy break on Harris. Weather was so bad the ferries didn't run the whole time we were there.
Went down a headland to photograph the breaking waves, and came away with this shot instead!
50mph offshore winds were really whipping the top off the waves.
Even 10 years on it's still one of my favourite images.
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Before I had any idea what I was doing with a camera at all, I just sort of waited, certain it'd look as I wanted. And at the time it did.

Splash! by Madison S, on Flickr
 
I don't think I've taken my first WOW picture yet.....everything I look back at my images I just notice things I should of noticed at the start!! Going to have a good look again now
 
I don't think I've had the Wow picture yet. I'm so critical of my pictures, I delete most straight away. I've now decided to keep everything and just enjoy taking shots.
 
I certainly haven't had any major wows just yet and I'll probably get slated because I started with instagram and phone stuff if I'm honest, but loved it..
Then I got my first camera, only a nikon coolpix but again I had a lot of fun and for me I was happy.

This was my first really early morning trip out with it, a place near bedford, After this i knew i wanted more.
Sadly now mojo is pretty much gone though some of that doesn't help with stupidly slow laptop and no editing software, nor no car..
Also knowing nothing technical but again that is definitely my fault

windmill & sunrise 034 by T., on Flickr
 
Age 6 being given an old box brownie type camera by my Nan and being allowed to shoot B&W film (money was tight when I was growing up). Mum worked at Middlesex Poly art dept so one of the tutors used to help me develop and print the films. I have some cherished early images of my family from these

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out of focus, poor composition, but I totally made that, all the way through, age 6. That got me hooked


Years later, with digital, I took this - called worlds apart of one of the local drinkers. I'd spotted the family walking through the underpass and the changed positions into the perfect alignment.
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My first WOW moment was when I could give this photograph to my friend who is in this picture. She always used to hate having her photograph taken (God knows why) and when I gave this to her, she was so happy she almost started crying. This was my first attempt at taking a portrait and I was hooked immediately. Not technically perfect, but an important milestone for sure.


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This was my first "WOW" image. Was taken while on holiday with my kids a few years ago. Flat out on the beach with a 10.2MP Sony A200 and a 70-300 lens. Just managed to catch him at the right time. Every time i look at it i love it more x

baileysurf by Kimberly Holder, on Flickr
 
I shot the image below in 1985. I was a huge fan of Patrick Lichfield's style and this was the first portrait I took where I thought I had nailed what I was trying to achieve - namely the Lichfield look.
I still love this shot - and its shown here straight out of the camera without being retouched.



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I had been an amateur photographer for years before I had a 'wow' moment. Like Pookyhead I started to develop my own B&W film however I never had an enlarger, I had to cobble together my own system using my dads slide projector. I was amazed that I had actually managed to produce my own 12x8 b&w print. This kept me interested. My first 'wow' moment was when I put together a calender for my mum using my own photographs. A couple of weeks later she asked for another ten or so for her friends who were willing to pay!
 
Wow! Some lovely photos here. I think, no, I hope this thread has stirred some good memories for everyone. Good memories are wonderful things, I love them, especially so when you get older like me, as according to my grandson, I'm older than 'Yoda.'
 
I'd been taking gig pictures on a compact camera with flash and really thought they were good (They weren't). Then I bought a Canon 350D but only had a 50mm prime for low light work, so it wasn't until I was front row at an intimate gig that I was able to capture this. The performer was my girlfriend's favourite artist and I'd been waiting over a year for the opportunity to see and hear him in the flesh. I was buzzing that much after the gig that I drove the 80 miles home from London and started processing the images that evening.

When I saw this picture on my PC's screen, I was so excited I woke my girlfriend up at almost 3am to tell her and I sure she was just as happy as I was. :mad:


David Ford by Al de Man, on Flickr
 
dancook said:
Yes, Thanks Phil and all :D
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I don't think I've seen that image before, but I do recall giving you some guidance an an earlier attempt at photographing the Mrs.

And look how good you got after that. It makes this place worth coming back to.
 
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I used a Zenit E when I was little but don't recall any wow photos. This, however, was taken just after I got my first DSLR, a Canon 450D, and I hadn't really got to grips with it, but this really made me say "Wow". I sent it off to a competition in a dog magazine which it won outright, and it really was this photo that started my love of photographing dogs and hence my current career.
 
I think the nearest I've come so far to a WOW was this one... not because it's the best shot I've done, but because it was by far the closest I'd ever come to what I'd pre-visualised before pressing the shutter release.

Vanitas with Globe and Fruit by The Big Yin, on Flickr

though, after living with a large print of it for a while, I'm afraid I've got to the stage that whenever I look at it, all I can see is what I need to do if I ever get a chance of a re-shoot :(
 
This one I took on a Canon compact stirred my interest again after many years away from my film cameras....... haven't stopped spending since..... :eek:


Nell by Derek Hogan, on Flickr
 
I am still waiting for the 'wow' photo. I often see wow photos taken by other photographers, but I haven't mange to get one myself yet.
 
Mine was back in 2006 at the renault world series event, i'd not long stepped into the dslr world with a canon 350d. I didn't really know how to use it properly (coming from a 2.0 megapixel p&s) and was amazed at some of the images i managed to get!

IMG_5872 by Darren Santoro, on Flickr
 
Al de Man said:
I'd been taking gig pictures on a compact camera with flash and really thought they were good (They weren't). Then I bought a Canon 350D but only had a 50mm prime for low light work, so it wasn't until I was front row at an intimate gig that I was able to capture this. The performer was my girlfriend's favourite artist and I'd been waiting over a year for the opportunity to see and hear him in the flesh. I was buzzing that much after the gig that I drove the 80 miles home from London and started processing the images that evening.

When I saw this picture on my PC's screen, I was so excited I woke my girlfriend up at almost 3am to tell her and I sure she was just as happy as I was. :mad:


David Ford by Al de Man, on Flickr
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Fantastic image! Probably helps that he is one of my favourites and you've really captured his passionate delivery!
 
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